Hyundai hikes i10 and Santro prices

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) has announced the immediate price hike on all variants of its Santro, i10 and Accent models. The company cites rising input costs as the primary reason for the price hike. The price hikes for the Santro range from Rs 3,601 for the base non-AC model and Rs 5,162 on its GL variant. For the i10 the increases range from Rs 3,974 on the 1.1 Era to Rs 7,637 on the 1.2 Asta WS AT. The Accent Executive is costlier by Rs 14,636.The prices for other Hyundai models remain unchanged as the company says it is to persist with introductory pricing on the i20 and Sonata . The company had also revised the prices for the Verna recently.

Car Sales Article

Carmakers are reassessing their export strategies in the wake of global recessionary trends, especially in Europe and North America. While Maruti Suzuki says it is 'cautiously optimistic', Hyundai India, the largest exporter of passenger Car,said orders have been scaled down or kept on hold in recent months from Europe and North American markets.

Grappling with a slump in the domestic markets, automakers are banking on demand for fuel efficient Small Car in export markets. The country’s two large carmakers had recently announced India as a global sourcing hub for small cars.

Korean carmaker Hyundai India, which exports to almost 100 countries and major markets being Europe, South America and South Africa, is seeing a slowdown in all markets. Till last year, the proportion of exports to domestic sales was 50:50.

With exports slowing, the proportion of exports has reduced to 44% in January 2009. "While some markets have put export orders on hold or scaled down orders, others have also given us advance orders," said Hyundai Motor India senior VP Arvind Saxena. Hyundai, which primarily exports i10, i20, Santro and Accent, has been expanding capacities at its Chennai plant to fulfil huge export demands.

Maruti Suzuki currently exports Alto, M800, Omni, Wagon R and Zen Estilo to non-European markets such as Chile, the UAE, Algeria and East Africa. This year, the Japanese carmaker started exporting to European markets like Britain and London.

"We have recently started exports of the A Star Compact Car to European market and the response has been good. Our distributors have given us advance orders too for the next few months," said Mayank Pareek, marketing head of Maruti Suzuki. Industry observers say that the Japanese carmaker will focus more on non-European markets.

Till date, Hyundai and Maruti have managed to keep up the momentum in exports. For April-January, Hyundai India managed to export 2.14 lakh cars, up by 91%, while Maruti Suzuki exported 48,689 cars, up by 17%. Tata Motors, saw exports fall by 43% to 5,880 units for the same period.

"In Europe and South American markets, there is a huge demand for fuel efficient small cars. But customers are postponing purchases," said an auto analyst from a Mumbai-based brokerage. Car makers say that although overall Car Salesfell by 21% in the UK and 18% in Italy, the drop in small car sales was lower at 8% and 4%, respectively.